Father Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Mother Frances Walsingham
Lady Dorothy Devereux was the daughter of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and Frances Walsingham.[1]
She married Sir Henry Shirley, 2nd Bt., son of Sir George Shirley, 1st Bt. and Frances Berkeley, on 1 August 1616.[2]
She married William Stafford, Esq., in 1634, no issue. He died 3 July 1637 and is buried 4 July 1637 at Blatherwycke. [3]
She died on 30 March 1636.[4]
Family 1
Children
Family 2
https://nl.findagrave.com/memorial/130626683/dorothy-shirley
Lady Dorothy's grandmother was Lady Lettice Knollys, cousin to Queen Elizabeth and granddaughter of Lady Mary Boleyn. Her grandfather was the 1st Earl of Essex, Walter Devereux and was descended from the only daughter and heiress of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, youngest son of King Edward I. Marriage to Lady Dorothy joined Henry Shirley in nearness of blood with the Royal stem of England. By this, Chartley Castle (briefly a place of imprisonment for Mary, Queen of Scots) and twelve other mansions and estates in the county of Stafford became the rich inheritance of the Shirley family and successors, Dorothy's lineal ancestor being the Lady Agnes Ferrers, daughter and heiress to her father William de Ferrers, married Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex.
Henry and Lady Dorothy had three children: Lettice, Charles and Robert. At the time of her husband's death, Lady Dorothy was said to be pregnant but there is no account of this child, so we may presume that it was still born.
Following her husband's death, it appears Lady Dorothy petitioned King Charles I setting forth her weak estate and her children's want of maintenance and we may suppose that it was in consequence of her straitened circumstances that the Lady Dorothy Shirley re-married the year after first husband's decease William Stafford, of Blatherwick, in the county of Northampton. She died two years after her second marriage, and was interred at Blatherwick, in the register of which parish her death is thus recorded : "The noble Ladie Dorothy Stafford died 30th March, and was buried 5th Apr. 1636."
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